"Don't compare our losses to casualties of war," retorted Garrett, "Unless the Ur-Quan are so far gone from warring with everyone else all the time that you can't tell the difference anymore. Many hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives fighting against the Hierarchy, but we accept those as casualties of war. Those numbers pale in comparison to the billions lost due to our surrender. We chose not to fight anymore because we wanted to prevent any more loss of life. It's clear to everyone that the Ur-Quan didn't care about our well being in the slightest. Yes, there was conflict over the limited resources the Earth could provide, but if the Ur-Quan had done even a cursory study of human history, that should have been obvious. Fighting for survival is hardly a trait unique to humanity, and the conflicts were relatively minor. But we couldn't have supported our entire population on Earth devoid of all other factors, and this was only compounded by the fact that quite a lot of arable land was too close to something too old to be spared by the Ur-Quan. On top of that, many food crops simply don't grow under red light, which you seem to be dismissing without considering. Billions of people simply starved, or were killed by uncontrollable plagues spread through extremely dense populations. We surrendered to prevent additional loss of life, but sealing us in with nowhere near the means to sustain us all killed far more people than war ever could."

"So if you're finished playing at being blameless, maybe we can return to the matter at hand. How can you hope to compensate us adequately for the billions of lives your actions cost? We need not even discuss the loss of our collective history and culture, despite that being priceless and unrecoverable. As you say," he spat sardonically, "perhaps we shouldn't be so attached to physical objects. But the billions of dead demand an answer, and so do those of us who still live."

"As for you," chimed in Admiral Clark, turning his attention toward the Druuge, "Just shut up already. Nobody outside the Utwig, Supox, and Burvixese even knew you existed before the Kohr-Ah rolled into town, and you damn well know how you avoided cleansing. We have the caster to prove it, too. You have no legitimate claims on anything you're asking for, and plenty of crimes to answer for. Just be glad if we all ignore you instead of taking you to task."

The Yehat delegate turns to the Druuge visibly angered.BRAAK! Druuge how hypocritical trading information when your corporation says that such information should be free or is that just a tactic used to try and discredit the Melnorme!

_________________FYI: I've explored almost all the dialogue trees in Sc2.

We have been through great pains to gain the information we have.We will freely share information about other races we know.But our technological knowledge is open for trade.

To answer the allegations of the Human representatives, and thereby answer the questions of the Ur-Quan delegate, who has still not answered if he only represents the Kzer-Za, or also the Kohr-Ah.When we learned from the Burvixese, our trade partners and customers, that likely a malevolent force is homing in on our entertainment and news programmes broadcasted through HyperSpace, and that this race is bent on genociding as many sapient races as they can find, we of course did our best to protect ourselves.

Upon receiving this warning, we shut down our broadcasting networks, and went to different star systems, and set up decoy HyperWave broadcasting stations, in an attempt to deflect the incoming aggressors. We also went to the Burvixese, to offer our help. The Burvixese only had limited interplanetary abilities, and no interstellar capabilities. We offered them our help, in spreading population groups to other systems, so that in case the aggressors would find them, the Burvixese race would survive.We offered, as thanks for their warning, a strong HyperSpace broadcasting unit, so that they could keep in contact with their new colonies, as our HyperSpace broadcasting units are stronger and have a further reach than theirs. We warned them to only use the unit for contact, and otherwise switch it off, to not attract the attention of the aggressors.Alas, somewhere there must've been a miscommunication, and either our installation team forgot to switch the 'caster off after the initial testing, or they themselves forgot to switch it off, after they tried to contact their colonisation group.

And before you ask, we do not know where our ships did bring the Burvixese colonists. We know a few ships went coreward, and some wanted to fly towards the Gg, whom we have not met yet. Our colony ships did not return, but this was expected, as they were additionally fully equipped to found Druuge colonies once their Burvixese colonists have made landfall on hopefully safe planets.And we kept radio silence between us and the Druuge who have been able to buy a passage on our colony ships.

After the Kohr-Ah annihilated the Burvixese, and the Doctrinal war started, we collected most of our decoy 'casters. We did want to avoid the impression, that the genocidal Kohr-Ah would come back and search for other races. We were fighting for our survival, and preparing what we could in case the genocidal aggressors would come back into our sector of this region of our galaxy.

Furthermore, not all Burvixese are extinct. We know this for a fact, as several Burvixese have accepted employment contracts of the Crimson Corporation, and have been through extensive trainee programmes to become productive members of our society. The shock for this group of our employees was horrible once we learned what happened to their home planet.But their drive for revenge against the genocidal Kohr-Ah, has ensured a steady climb up the career ladders for most of them, leading to the first non-Druuge to have become chief operating officers of some of our subsidiaries and major branches.As such, they are valued members of our society, and have recently acquired special rights to allow for their different reproduction cycles.According to our records, we currently have 1.338 Burvixese individuals living with our SOI. We project an increase in these numbers, as they have modified a secluded swamp-like beach on our home world Zeta Persei I, and are using one of the furnaces to provide the heat their eggs need to hatch.

We invite you to visit Zeta Persei I, maybe we can convince you that we are not slave traders. I am sure, the Burvixese would also welcome trade opportunities with all of you.

In the spirit of understanding, I wish to correct myself. One of my adjutants informed me, that the Ur-Quan Kzer-Za delegate expressly denied representing the Ur-Quan Kohr-Ah when he adressed the claims of the Utwig.

In this regard, the question remains, why the Kzer-Za representative uses "Ur-Quan" when speaking about those he represents.In our understanding, the Ur-Quan are both races, the Kzer-Za and the Kohr-Ah.

Can the representative of the Ur-Quan Kzer-Za please clarify? Or have the Kzer-Za stopped using the name of the famous Ur-Quan, that led them to freedom from the Dnyarri?

Lord 004 waits for the Maalin to finish. It moves toward the others. Then a pause. Clearly the Ur-Quan has something to say. It’s purple orbs blinking, it’s sheathe retracts. It’s talons ooze.

“Druuge. The Kohr-Ah have vanished. Their current location is unknown to us. This council will claim that we are not willing to change. That we unware of our flaws. This is a farce. We are all too aware of the biggest flaw in our society. It dates back to a time before most of your species had achieved sentience.

The detestable evil beings you speak of, the Dnyarri, have perverted our genetic code. It is only through recent mutations in this code that have allowed individuals like me to break free from the rhetoric of enslavement. Even now, my defense of the enslavement of the many species we have encountered is a 'natural' response. A response born not only of indoctrination and fear, but genetic manipulation. The Dnyarri made the Kzer Za thinkers. But they were not careful in their experimentation of us. They left obvious errors.

Now, our greatest undertaking is upon us. We must take our genetic code into our own appendages. In the center of our fleet, we work tirelessly to rectify the mistakes made by the Dnyarri. What we do not have, is the luxury of time. The Dnyarri spent many rotations of our star breeding us to fit their will. We must find a way to affect these changes now on all of our people.”

Lord 004’s talons finally stop oozing, and it cleans itself. Its sheath returns to it former position. The whole affair is a grotesque sight to witness. Once it appears to be more comfortable, the Ur-Quan turns directly to Maalin.

“The fallow species are indeed safe; the only exception being those that could not sustain themselves with the resources provided to them. You ask for evidence. The evidence is there. I have transmitted coordinates to a world just outside this sector in the direction from which my fleet arrived. There, you will find a starbase and a race of beings that are being monitored and sustained. Go to them and you will find that the shields do preserve life.

In our assessment of the Chmmr, we hypothesized that they would try to use their sun to overcome the shield. We could not have been more correct. Their shield was specifically tuned to lower the amount of solar energy the planet would receive; but not low enough to interfere with the biological processes of the biosphere.

Druuge, this is the last time I will respond to your falsehoods about a technology that you clearly do not understand. Do not pretend that your species minor economic structures were affected by the war. In fact, if any impact was made, you profited. You now possess at least 1 Mycon Egg Case, do you not? Additionally, your possession of the precursor artifacts you mentioned is dangerous. You should give us the technology. We are more prepared for the effects of experimentation.”

The creature twists, each section of its body spiraling until it has made eye contact with the Humans. It made a face. Confusion? It was hard to tell with the Ur-Quan. Each face they made was always horrific.

“Humans, does your species somehow persist after biological death? This process of the dead demanding answers; How does it manifest? This subject requires study.Once again, you ask us for recompense for the loss of life on your world, but you do not specify what it is you need. Your social rituals seem to be preventing you from making your demands.”

Now you have finally said that you do not know where the Kohr-Ah are.Do you have any idea, in which direction they went?

But you have not answered our question, of why you refer to yourself with the general term "Ur-Quan".

Also, we have learned that it is very dangerous to experiment on your own genes.If you need advice, our scientists are prepared to help you, in exchange to your insights on genetic manipulations.

Anyway, some of the genuinine Precursor artifacts are for sale. This is being handled by a different division of the Crimson Corporation. You'd have to fly to Zeta Persei and get into contact with the specialists there.For better bargains, mention that I, Maalin of the External Contacts Directorate, have sent you.

Regarding profiting from the war:We have not profited. There simply were no customers, except for one single ship.Yes, these trades have brought us a few egg case fragments, but as the Human Zelnick knew, we already possessed some of these. We knew the properties. We have already found several of them during our endeavours near our Sphere Of Influence. We have observed how the Mycon use their "Deep Children".What we lack is the ability to recreate these egg-sacs.

So far, all our tries to engage in direct trading contact with the Mycon have failed. We cannot fathom what they need, and have therefore been unable to provide them with a trade they found acceptable.

And yes, as long as we cannot produce them ourselves, we will still buy more fungal mats of the Mycon Deep Child.But as far as we know, the Mycon have currently stopped sending their Mycon Deep Children fleet anywhere.During the freedom rebellion, we have observed their fleet doing a typical Deep Child escort. Due to typical security perimeters they have, we have not been able to observe the planet-crust shattering ceremony, but their fleet returned much smaller from Organon, and as far as we could discern, most of the Deep Children were still with them.When we later surveyed Organon, we have found no evidence of the Mycon actually having performed their ritual.We do not know what happened there, but our material reserch division is closely monitoring Organon I.

Only a few moments after the Druuge's departure, the Utwig representative, having been silent for the longest time, finally rises up. After switching masks to an abhorrent... thing which really does not deserve to be described with words (maybe the Utwig found its aesthetics pleasant?) the robed being begins to speak.

"My apologies for the prolonged silence, fellow delegates, but I could not risk what I am about to say being overheard by that particular Druuge. Many things were revealed when I spoke to the Ultimate, just a brief while ago. There is much that must be done. I cannot share the specifics; those roads are shrouded in darkness, and not all of the Ultimate's emanations were clear. Sharing this information would draw us into constant infighting, disagreements of a degree which I fear we would never recover from."

For a few moments, the Utwig almost seems uncertain. Or at least it would, assuming anyone can stand looking at the mask long enough to notice the sudden glint in its eyes. Then it is gone, having vanished as quickly as it appeared. The masked being turns towards the Ur-Quan representative, words once again beginning to emerge from behind the folds of the mask... although the word was still more of a description than what the item truly deserved.

"There are, however, some facts that I can repeat. A boon... and a warning. For an answer to your legacy, seek an unseen star in the depths of Pyxidis. When the darkness grows bright, you will understand. Quite frankly, I do not really know what the Ultimate meant with those words, but I am sure the explanation will be unveiled in time. There is danger in your future, however. The Kohr-Ah found something during their chaotic retreat, an ancient device from the last days of the Precursors... and they see your kind as traitors. If I tell you more, you will fall, because even now, you doubt my words. If you learn the knowledge that the Ultimate has bestowed to the Proctors, you will doubtlessly attempt to disprove my words, and in so doing lead yourself down the path of annihilation. You must find your own way to reach success, before the Kohr-Ah makes a mistake that may lead to the end of life in our galaxy as we know it."

Whilst these words, coming from an Umgah, would never be taken seriously, the Utwig seems dead serious. As the moments pass, however, nothing more seems to be forthcoming. The Utwig slowly sits down, already engrossed in some sort of phone-shaped electronic device. Thankfully, it swaps out its mask as it sits down - some sapients' eyes may have already been drawing close to their limits, but at least the offensive mask is no longer being publicly displayed.

_________________"Sentient life. We are the Ur-Quan. Independence is intolerable. Blah, blah, blah." - the Spathi High Council, Star Control II.

The council members observe a heavy increase in HyperWave transmissions from the group of Druuge ships in orbit, which shortly after fully stops.

Now that the HyperWave transmissions have ended, the HyperSpace radars show, that at least three groups of ships have been on the way here, but two have veered off towards the general direction of Arcturus, while the last group enters the system. It contained 4 Druuge Mauler, who are on their way to join the 4 Maulers which remained after Maalin's departure, which move to a slightly higher orbit while increasing the distance between them.The ship movements take a while, as the Druuge ships avoid pointing the ship noses in the direction of the planet, the orbital installations or any other ship in orbit. Which is about the maximum diplomatic honour shown by the Druuge ships ever observed.

They do so while keeping radio silence.

Luumin on his swing watches the orbital actions motionless on his screen.

Luumin steps up to the speaker.Dear councilmembers,I have been instructed from by my superiors to inform you that the Crimson Corporation has started to mine several systems within the region of HyperSpace coordinates 850:450 to 950:550, including several brown dwarf systems invisible on the standard hyperSpace map as used by the Humans, and that we therefore consider that sector as our sole Sphere Of Influence, and therefore request all others to refrain from accessing these systems currently.As the set-up of the mining machinery is in a critical phase, our patrols have been instructed to aggressively ward off anyone for their own safety, and for the safety of our miners.If you have questions on this topic, please wait for representative Maalin, who is currently on his way back here.

You are still invited for any form of trades to visit our maint rade world at Zeta Persei. If you cannot make the travels there yourself at this time, feel free to contact our trade attaché on board of our ships in orbit.

As a precautionary warning I wish to inform you, that currently there are 8 Maulers on their way to this Council system. Once they have reached this system, the current set of ships will leave for our home stars, as the crew aboard the Maulers are due for their shore leaves.

Therefore please do not feel alarmed by the movement of ships you will soon notice in orbit.

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